


Façade

by Raccoonfg



Category: Zootopia (2016)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2017-09-22
Packaged: 2019-01-04 03:45:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,644
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12160881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raccoonfg/pseuds/Raccoonfg
Summary: It's always nice to visit a friend.





	Façade

“We’re really glad you were able to make time today, Officer Wilde.”

“Oh, uh, yeah,” Nick murmured, worryingly eyeing the surroundings of the hospital hallway as he tugged at his necktie. The soft echo of the intercom briefly clicked to life, summoning one of the on-duty doctors. His ears perked up at the hollow chatter, drawing his attention to the nearest speaker.

“Is there, ah, anything you need to know first?” The nurse, a gentle-voiced hippo, leaned into Nick’s line of sight, gingerly breaking him off from the distraction of the PA system.

After shaking off the brief daze, Nick blinked and jerked his snout in her direction. “No- No. I’ve, uh, been filled in on everything.” For a moment’s pause, Nick wormed his tongue around in his mouth before forcing out what was really on his mind. “Are you sure I should see her now? Shouldn’t we wait until she’s… You know- Be- Better?”

“I understand how you must be feeling right now, Officer Wilde,” the nurse replied with a sympathetic sigh. “These sorts of visits are never easy for anyone. And while you’re right to be concerned about her current condition, what she needs now is a friendly face.” She then reached out one of her heavy hooves, and reassuringly grasped his shoulder. “And frankly, she’s been asking for you a lot.”

“Yeah,” Nick nodded warily. “Yeah, she would.”

The hippo released her hold on him and quietly started to open the doorway into the next room. “If you need me, I’ll be waiting right outside.”

“T-thanks.”

As he stepped into the room, Nick took notice of how simple and calm it was inside. Just a bed, a nightstand, and a few chairs for guests by the window. He wasn’t really sure what else he expected to be there, maybe a collection of beeping medical devices, but in retrospect that did seem a little over the top, even in this case.

Innocently nestled under the bed’s covers was the room’s sole occupant, who seemed to be just now waking up; clearly stirred by the sound of Nick’s arrival.

“Mm? Hello?” She asked with a groggy voice. “Who’s there?”

“It’s, ah-- Ehem!” With a little cough to regain control over his voice, Nick more evenly replied “It’s me.”

“Nick!” The sound of his voice alone brought her to sit straight up without a moment’s hesitation; her face was all bright and perky like she had been awake all along. “I was starting to worry you weren’t coming by.”

“Heh. Yeah, sorry about that, but hey, here I am.” Nick gave a half-hearted wave of his paws. “The, uh, fox has arrived.”

While Nick nervously chuckled at his own joke, she only pleasantly smiled back, bringing him to self-consciously dig his paws into his pants pockets and scuff his foot back and forth on the carpeting.

“Sooo… How’re they treating you here?”

“Really well,” she cheerfully replied. “The food isn’t as half bad as they say, and I have my own room.” Tilting her head at Nick, she added with a shrug “Though I miss the company.”

Nick solemnly nodded, his eyes wandering towards the wall’s plain, white baseboard. “Yeah, I can imagine.”

A light giggle abruptly escaped her lips and Nick glanced back up at her to see she was waving him over.

“Come on,” she tittered while patting the bed, “don’t hang around there like a stranger.”

“R-right,” Nick muttered and started shuffling closer to her bedside. “Sorry about that.”

Seeing the small, reassuring smile she was giving him as he inched towards her, Nick felt a pang of guilt about how he was handling the whole situation. By the time he finally reached the edge of her bed and sat down, his body seemed to sink deeper into the mattress with all the weight the rested on his shoulders.

“Look at you,” she cooed, leaning forward. “You’re dressed so formally.”

Nick gave a nervous tug at his black necktie, tightening it a little too uncomfortably.

“So, what, ah…” He rolled his paw in the air for a moment, grasping for the right word to use. “What’s the word on your, um, condition?”

This time it was her turn to glance around, avoiding eye contact.

“Oh, you know,” she said in a low, calm voice as she lightly bounced her shoulders, “They’ve been taking a lot of tests, but not giving many answers…”

Nick could only manage a weak, sympathetic smile as he peered down at her small body. “I’m sure they’ll sort you out soon.”

“I know,” she sighed. “Honestly, I feel fine for the most part. It’s just…” Shifting her weight towards the nightstand, she pulled open a drawer and started fumbling around in it. “I mean, sure, my eyesight hasn’t been the way it used to since the accident. But at least they were able to get me a spare set of glasses that fit.” She then produced a large pair of horn-rimmed glasses and slipped them on. “Lucky me, huh?”

“Y-yeah,” Nick’s throat constricted and his lips trembled as he choked up on his speech; his paws tensely gripped the bed sheets into tight wads. “L-lucky you.”

Despite all he did to keep his emotions from boiling over, he knew it was only in vain as she looked up at him with earnest concern.

“Hey, slick,” she reached out and tenderly grasped his forearm, “I’m going to be okay.”

Nick erratically bobbed his head, unable to reply while he desperately tried to swallow his emotions. With a heavy gulp, he was able to face her again and saw that she was struggling to contain herself as well.

“I-I’m--” Her voice cracked ever so slightly as she spoke. “I’m not going to leave my partner out there alone, okay?”

The tight-lipped smile on her face tried to convince him everything was okay, but the tears said otherwise when Nick looked straight into her wet green eyes.

He practically jolted right off the bed, pulling his arm away from her as he stammered. “Y-yeah. S-sure thing. Listen, I-I, ah… I got this, uh- This thing the- the chief needs everyone to…”

“O-oh, sure.” Her arm was still raised. She seemed not quite sure what to make of the sudden retraction, but slowly she placed it back at her side and gave him a sheepish look, like it wasn’t really a big deal. “Better not keep the chief waiting.”

“…Right.”

Nick couldn’t get himself out of there quickly enough. He shuffled as quickly as he could with his head hung low and tail dragging along the floor listlessly. But no sooner than he laid his paw on the doorknob did he hear her voice call out to him.

“I mean it. As soon as I’m able, we’ll be back on the streets. Wilde and Hopps. Just like always.”

The knob rattled under his grip and he strained against every fiber of his being to keep from cracking; to resist the urge to turn back and scream at her to face the facts. Nothing will ever be ‘like always’ again, no matter how much she convinced herself that it was true. It was all a lie.

His other paw balled into a fist and pumped in the air futilely until he could will his head into another spastic nod for her benefit. To let her live the lie a day longer.

And with that, he tore the door open and fled from her room.

“I know it may not feel that way, but what you did was very brave, Officer Wilde.”

The hippo nurse loomed over Nick while he knelt on the hallway floor; his body hunched over and convulsing with every labored breath. She was right on the first part; he didn’t feel brave at all.

When his heavy panting subsided into a dry wheeze, the nurse lowered her hoof down into his view, offering him help back to his feet. Instinctively, Nick accepted the gesture, and as she raised him up he brushed out the wrinkles in his black suit jacket.

“Is this really okay?” Nick asked; his voice firm and clear for the first time since he arrived.

“It may be difficult for you to understand, given the work we have to do to help her,” the nurse replied with a practiced tone of compassion in her voice. “But her treatment will come along easier if she has someone like you giving her support. In time, the trust you build with her will ease her into coping with the facts and she’ll be more receptive to our own attempts to help her.”

In the silence that followed her little speech the intercom crackled again, repeating names Nick didn’t bother listening to while he continued petting and straightening out his clothes.

“Do you need me for anything else?” he flatly asked as he tugged his tie back into a comfortable fit. “I have a service to attend.”

“No.” The nurse shook her head. “But here.” She withdrew a pamphlet from her pocket and held it out for him to take. It was scaled for mid-size mammals like him, and looked no bigger than a bundle of pocket tissues in her large hoof. “This may answer some questions you still have. Otherwise, please contact us about anything else you need to know.”

Nick quietly eyed the folded booklet and then gazed past it, up into the hippo’s face, to see the pitying look in her eyes.

Calmly, he took the pamphlet and walked off towards the elevator without another word.

If she had wished him goodbye on his way down the hall, he didn't care to hear it.

As the elevator doors swiftly closed in front of him, he glanced at the bold title on the pamphlet’s cover, ‘Understanding DID’, and stuffed it into his pocket.

What was left to understand?


End file.
